


An Even Mistake

by ideallyqualia



Series: Rare Pairs [56]
Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Canon Universe, M/M, Pre-Relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-11-18
Updated: 2015-11-18
Packaged: 2018-05-02 07:29:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,006
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5239802
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ideallyqualia/pseuds/ideallyqualia
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Water isn't a love potion, but it works.</p>
            </blockquote>





	An Even Mistake

Kawanishi's fingers linked together, his shoulders stiff and his eyes definitively  _not_ on Tendou. Not on the water dripping from his hair, falling down the side of his neck and slipping into the top of his shirt, not on the bend of his arms in the air as he paused in baffled shock, and  _not_ on the darkening flicker of his eyes as he recovered.

"Taichi,  _water_?"

Kawanishi lowered his water bottle. "You wouldn't move out of the way." He fixed back on Tendou's hair, and his stomach dissolved, wrapped in the flat wet strands of Tendou's hair falling messily over his forehead, short but still long enough to stick to his forehead and spill over. 

Tendou wiped water off his forehead, grimacing and glancing over himself again with his mouth twisted. He wasn't mad -- he rarely got  _mad_ , he was only pushed to irritability, especially on the court -- but the wrinkling nose and squinted, suspicious eyes cast a little too close to his irritable side.

Tendou stepped forward and yanked the bottle from Kawanishi's hands. He shook it, and the sloshing noises inside confirmed that there was still water. Tendou glanced at him with a decisive glint, and before Kawanishi could ask about anything, Tendou opened the bottle and dumped the rest of the water on Kawanishi.

Tendou handed it back to him. "There."

Reciprocal annoyance wasn't a good reason for doing it, but Tendou looked a little smug anyway, his head lifting and chin turning up. 

"Why didn't you just ask for an apology?" Kawanishi asked.

"Now that you say it, I want that, too."

Kawanishi couldn't believe it didn't even  _occur_ to him. "No."

"So there, then," Tendou said. "We're even."

Kawanishi skimmed his hand over his practice jersey and cleaned water off with flicks and tight presses. He was back to ignoring Tendou, unable to acknowledge the sudden focus of deep color in Tendou's eyes with his hair flattened and closer to framing them than before, wet and  _messy_ and clenching Kawanishi's stomach with a dropping sensation that made his eyes fly to the floor quietly.

Tendou ran his hand through his hair, trying to make it stand back up and failing. His mouth tightened in disappointment, and an upward sigh from his mouth disturbed his hair in a small wave before it settled back over. Kawanishi briefly glanced at Tendou's mouth, too, but he knew that  _that_ would be too obvious. He didn't consciously know that, but he instinctively skimmed and avoided it to dodge the question Tendou would ask, his neck warming from the humiliating possibility.

Semi walked by, and he stopped, his eyebrow rising but his mouth twitching. "What happened?"

"I threw water at him," Kawanishi confessed.

"It's… You're lucky practice is over," Semi said, his eyes flitting to Washijou behind them in the gym. "Don't… Don't get wet again."

"Don't say it like that," Kawanishi said. He saw Semi's shoulders shake, and he realized that Semi was struggling between laughing and frowning at them.

Kawanishi continued to the locker room, walking beside Tendou quietly, walking with him from coincidence instead of choice. Tendou pulled off his shirt to change, the wet fabric sticking to him and fitting to his chest before allowing itself to be peeled off. Kawanishi was resolutely, genuinely determined to not look, but he saw it anyway. He failed each time he decided not to glance back up again, the string of failed decisions spanning a minute and stretching it to a surreal slowness that only _highlighted_  the slightly wet, drying skin of his back and shoulders. Kawanishi usually didn't care to look, or he cared enough about being caught to keep from looking, but now he was completely forgetting about the option to look away. Tendou's muscles tensed with movement, tightening as he crouched to yank off his socks and tug new ones on, and when he bent to pull a sock on with a better angle of strength, Kawanishi had to look somewhere else, down at Shirabu.

Shirabu was staring back at him, his eyes meaningfully silent but bored. He was changing still, but slowly, his hand on his sock.

"What?" Kawanishi asked.

"Nothing. I just wanted to test and see how long someone could be stared at without noticing."

Kawanishi's eyes narrowed. "Don't say anything."

"I don't want to."

Kawanishi jerked his head away and fumbled with his locker, finally moving on and turning the lock with the pressure of someone else watching and knowing. It took him a few tries to remember his combination and successfully open his locker, and by the time he pulled out his sports bag and undid the zipper, Shirabu had resumed changing.

Kawanishi didn't bother wiping the water out of his hair with a towel. The dry hot breeze outside ruffled his hair, making him feel humid and a little sticky but not unbearably uncomfortable. He walked beside Shirabu, the both of them deliberately quiet.

Tendou appeared again, Semi at his side and hurrying to keep up with Tendou. They stopped when they reached Shirabu and Kawanishi.

"Not dry yet? That'll teach you a lesson."

"That'll teach him  _what_ ," Semi said, his voice too flat to carry a question.

Kawanishi's attention faded to linger on Tendou's hair and neck. He only looked a little less wet, but his hair was still just as deflated, falling over the sides of his head with the same degree of carelessness. Tendou tried to push his hair up or to the side, but it kept returning and flipping back, and he gave up again. 

"Taichi, what are you looking at?" Tendou asked.

"Nothing."

"You're looking right at me."

Kawanishi averted his eyes. "No I'm not."

Tendou leaned forward from their group as they continued walking, opening his mouth to speak, but Kawanishi turned his head and stepped away. He was almost ducking by now, and he continued and ended up splitting off completely to walk alone, his head burning into an uncomfortable mix with the sticky cool water and sweat.

**Author's Note:**

> (General A/N that exists at the end of all my fics): I find unsolicited concrit really rude, I'm not looking for any. Please don't tell me someone was OOC/something happened you didn't like/it's too short/etc. in any bookmarks or comments.


End file.
